This is what I've settled on:
Single pump.
Tamp semi-firmly - pressure like you're slicing an apple in half.

I preinfuse until it drips, but not everyone does per this thread.

So the variable is grind. I used the Naked Espresso pressure dial to pull my shot @ 9 bars. The grind I am happy with, for Redbird takes me about 40 seconds to pull.

Preinfusion and grind are finally determined by taste. I dialed in grind first and then started tweaking preinfusion.

Okay, cool. A few follow-ups, if you don't mind:

What's your dose and yield like?

Can you give me a description of what 9 bar of pressure feels like to pull? Are you coming close to tipping the machine? half way there? Some other common experience you can relate it to?

I know that varying preinfusion and grind will tweak the flavors in the shot, so I'm more or less only worried about getting to a 'drinkable' level consistently first, then I'll worry about profile.

Thanks!!!

Grind and specific bean end up being the most important variables for me (although many would likely put group temp in that category). I often pull a darker roast 'traditional' espresso blend first and then follow that with a lighter roasted SO shot. Those take different grind settings and doses to be able to pull at my preferred pressure profile (start at 6 bar and slowly decline to 3 bar for most of the shot, pull shot when it blonds). I don't do double (or Fellini) pulls. I use the Elektra double basket, and do 15g for darker roasts, 16-17g for light roasts (dose varies by coffee and how advanced it is age-wise - updose for older coffees). Lock in loaded basket and PF, lever up for 10 seconds, one full pull using Gabor's group pressure gauge to above pressure profile.

As I mentioned, I don't measure group temp, although I agree it's an important variable. I just do one flush and then five or six half pumps to get the group to temp prior to my first shot.

jwCrema wrote:The grind I am happy with, for Redbird takes me about 40 seconds to pull.

Jack,

Does 40 seconds include the preinfusion time while the lever is at the top, or is it the time from when you begin pulling down?

Thanks,

Rocky

Pull time only. I'm not tracking preinfusion time - my thinking right now, (subject to change due to further enlightenment someday), is the drips are the only way I can think of to know the puck has reached saturation.

I use the Elektra double basket, and do 15g for darker roasts, 16-17g for light roasts

Greg, What's your yield like?

Watching this discussion and hoping to learn something. Here's where I'm at right now but I am still tweaking it.

17 grams Intelligentsia Black Cat Organic. RDT and then grind on HG-One into tumbler. WDT quickly in tumbler and then again in A Leva double PF Basket (Overkill maybe? but I have had better results with both than one or the other). One flat bump on the counter and then Stockfleth. Tamp. Grouphead temp 201-203. preinfuse for 15 seconds. Double Fellini takes another 12 seconds. 34 gram shot in another 27ish seconds at however many bars I am pulling (almost tipping at the beginning to something a bit less by the end.)

I feel like I have a ways to go to improve this but that's where I'm at so far. Some shots are great and some suck. Not sure why.

Ben, not sure - I've never measured yield. Despite my aversion to other measures such as yield and group temp, I really appreciate having Gabor's group pressure gauge. It's probably the second most useful learning tool after a bottomless PF, for me anyway. I generally adjust dose before grind as coffees age, unless a particular batch is clearly getting long in the tooth - then I'll tighten grind. So if I can feel that the same grind and dose I was using is now flowing too fast and/or my yield is visibly greater than a few days earlier (I use my Cremina daily, so I've usually got a pretty good handle on what shots look and feel like), I'll updose a gram or so. If that coffee is still around a few days later and starts flowing faster again, then I'll tighten grind. I'll rarely dose higher than 17g in the Elektra double, even on lighter roasts.

I also am almost always pulling Victrola's Streamline Espresso for my first shot on both the Cremina and Oly Club, and that's been the case for a couple of years now, so I have a very good feel for how that coffee should behave on my machines. Second shot is typically a SO African coffee. For whatever reason I drink a lot of Kenyan coffees in the spring and summer and Ethiopians in the fall and winter.

My setup (those Olympia machines paired with a Mahlgut MG-1 grinder) has been the same for a couple of years so my workflow is fairly set, and I just work to improve it over time.

Thanks Greg, all good information!!

I'd freakin' LOVE to get either the pressure gauge, or a bottomless portafilter, but either would probably cost more than the sum total I've spent so far on my Cremina. I think I need to struggle along without them for awhile before I commit!

cecilx22 wrote: I'd freakin' LOVE to get either the pressure gauge, or a bottomless portafilter, but either would probably cost more than the sum total I've spent so far on my Cremina.

69 days until Christmas! And you got a heck of a deal on your Cremina!